This invention relates to safety devices for restraining young children in airplanes.
Most commercial airlines do not require children up to the age of two, who are flying with their parents or guardians, to sit in their own airline seat. These young children, commonly referred to in the airlines industry as lap children, are allowed to sit in their parent's lap during take-off, flight and landing without being restrained by a seatbelt or other restraining device.
Sitting in an airline seat without the protection of a seat belt can be quite dangerous for these lap children. It is highly likely that such a child could fall out of his parent's lap, or strike the seat ahead of him, or even bounce up and hit the ceiling or luggage rack if the plane encounters a pocket of turbulence or suddenly loses altitude. A child could be severely injured if such an event occurs. Indeed, there have been a number of reported cases where lap children have been severely injured after becoming dislodged from their parent's lap because of turbulence or a sudden drop in altitude. These injuries could have been prevented if the child was wearing a seatbelt or was otherwise secured to the seat.
Child restraints for protecting children are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,321,247; 3,295,501; 2,888,063; 2,877,833; 2,817,393; 2,429;283; and 1,551,932. Most of these restraints, however, are fairly complex in design, expensive to manufacture, difficult to adjust, and not easily stored when not in use. Because of the disadvantages of the existing restraints, few, if any, airlines provide safety restraints for their young passengers.
Commercial airlines may become interested in safety restraints for small passengers if a restraint could be designed which is easy to use and inexpensive to manufacture. Further, the restraint should be easy to adjust so that it can be quickly secured to and removed from a young child.